We have been betrayed by B.C.
My husband and I are 74 and 84 respectively, and he will soon be starting chemotherapy for a cancer recurrence. I am appalled and beyond angry that Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix have abandoned us to make our own decisions about how we wish to deal with the pandemic.
Yes, we will get another booster, but we do not want to be exposed to COVID in the first place. The pandemic is not over, and yet they seem to be suggesting that we just learn to live with it. Even with a booster, contracting COVID could mean a death sentence for my husband.
The decision to lift the mask and passport restrictions would make sense and be much more palatable if hospitalizations and case counts were actually going down, but they have plateaued and are rising as the sixth wave of the virus hits B.C.
Yet, Henry is going forward with this foolhardy and dangerous decision. Unbelievably, the government is also reducing case reporting, eliminating transparency and accountability.
The claim that B.C. is ‘in a good place” defies logic given the statistics and what is happening elsewhere. It is all too apparent that the government is putting the economy and politics before public health.
Henry asked us to be calm, kind and safe; we were and gratefully followed her advice, thinking she was acting in our best interests. Well, we no longer feel calm, kind or safe. I am profoundly disheartened and disappointed. It seems that the unvaccinated and the anti-maskers have triumphed after all.
Joan Richardt
Sidney
Take Henry’s word over Furstenau’s
B.C. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau says provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and the BC NDP “have failed to educate British Columbians on the risks of long COVID, of the airborne spread of this virus and of the benefits of well-fitting and high-quality masks.”
The above messaging is all I have heard for so long now. Unfortunately, public fatigue with COVID restrictions means that continuing with restrictions or any new mandates seem to be an untenable approach, so in my opinion, Henry is correct in her approach.
Henry has likely saved many many lives throughout the pandemic, Furstenau not so much. Leave medical and public health decisions to the experts, please, and leave politics where it should be.
Bravo, Dr. Henry.
Ian Marsh
Victoria
Say goodbye to all that divisiveness
In response to the recent letter-writer who suggested that it is “reckless” to allow cruise-ship passengers to “come to our city so they can shop and spread COVID”: according to the most recent updates, Island Health (and the South Island, in particular) has one of the highest COVID positivity rates in the province, and that’s with barely any testing.
Cruise passengers are tested eight ways ’til Sunday. They should be more worried about us than we are of them.
Either way, isn’t it wonderful that we now have vaccines, which have rendered sensationalist statements such as “the dollar is mightier than a human life” irrelevant. Bon voyage, COVID-fuelled divisiveness!
Paige Gibson
North Saanich
Those pickleballs not as noisy as bombs
Today on my walk I could hear the sound of pickleballs and laughter coming from a nearby park. Having just finished listening to the news about the atrocities in the Ukraine, I was struck by the contrast that here in Victoria all we have to complain about is noise from pickleballs.
How about listening to bombs going off in your neighbourhood or being shot in the head? Perhaps the complainers would like to spend a week in the Ukraine in order to appreciate how very privileged they are to live where they do — pickleballs and all.
Lia Fraser
Victoria
Carnarvon Park has courts for pickleball
Re: “Head of pickleball group predicts conflicts as players moved to Victoria’s Central Park,” April 6.
It might be a bit farther to travel, but there are five courts specifically made for pickleball in Carnarvon Park.
There are often vacant courts there, so perhaps some of the displaced pickleballers and pickleballers that use the tennis courts at Oaklands can use the Carnarvon courts instead.
Additionally, it’s not the sound of people laughing and enjoying themselves that is a nuisance.
It’s the sound of the hard plastic wiffle balls that bothers neighbours. Maybe players can switch to the quieter equipment instead.
Jamaal Cox
Victoria
Sea lions sending a fish farm message
Hurrah for the sea lions! Maybe they can finally convince salmon-farm owners that their pens belong on dry land.
Jan Murray
Vic West
Daffodils, spring and great memories
Re: “Fields of yellow, a rite of spring,” April 7.
The photograph of the daffodil fields along Wallace Drive brought back a flood of memories for me.
Growing up in the Gorge-Tillicum area in the early 1960s, my dad took great pride in growing a variety of flowers along a long flower bed that ran the length of our front yard.
In the spring it was daffodils, and in the summer it was filled with marigolds and Silvia. Given that my mother’s birthday was in April, I would always carefully cut a few daffodils from my dad’s flower bed and give to my mom for her birthday.
It wasn’t until well after I had retired that my mom and I were reminiscing about living at the house and my giving her the daffodils. Turns out she never knew that I had simply scoffed them from my dad’s flower bed. All this time she thought that I had gone to the corner store a few blocks away and bought them.
We both had a good chuckle over that.
Shirley Waldon
Victoria
Earth’s inner heat offers lots of energy
Our governments have spent vast amounts of money, during COVID in particular, on supporting interests that do little or nothing to help reduce ever-increasing climate chaos and weather damage to our health, comfort and economy.
Large sums have been allotted to obviously ridiculously inefficient methods trying to capture Earth-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, resulting mostly in another way to keep fossil-fuel companies well padded enough to continue wrecking our climate and polluting air, land and water.
However, there is another avenue as yet little explored, which could hold the prospect of huge quantities of clean energy able to be either continually or easily variable in delivery, and have relatively little impact on the landscape while remaining impervious to varied weathers.
Enhanced geothermal systems, utilizing laser, plasma, percussive or high-pressure water-jet technologies may reduce deep drilling costs through hard rock to economic feasibility.
Only by harnessing the nearly limitless energy provided by Earth’s inner heat can we attain sufficient direct carbon capture without thereby destroying our planet’s hospitality with more emissions. Storage may be as difficult.
This will be a massive task, but our survival most likely depends upon it or upon catastrophic forced abandonment of most technologies developed over the past 200 years, reverting to small groups scattered among a few remaining supportive ecosystems.
Perhaps the greatest impediment to the proper use of this technology will be our greedy impulse to use surplus energy for the enjoyment of climate-disruptive and eco-destructive activities.
Glynne Evans
Saanich
Police blockade gets James Bay praise
I live in James Bay and I just want to give a huge thank you to the police who are giving of their time to help the people of James Bay maintain a normal, peaceful life by keeping the protesters out of our neighbourhood.
It is greatly appreciated.
Diane Ball
James Bay
Thanks to those who rescued my stray dog
I want to express a big thank you to the kind fellows who picked up my elderly, almost deaf dog from the busy, high-traffic thoroughfare of Fowler Road on March 24.
My small dog spends her days at the neighbours’ fully fenced yard, but the gate was found to be open, first time in three years.
I am grateful for all my neighbours and strangers who do many kind things.
Lisa Guest
Saanich
Trust the citizens’ assembly in the amalgamation process
I’ve read many letters recently expressing various degrees of concern, dismay, skepticism, sarcasm and outright hostility toward the idea of Victoria-Saanich amalgamation (and perhaps further amalgamation of other municipalities in future).
I share some of the more thoughtful concerns, but I want to remind all fellow citizens of one crucial piece of advice: Trust the process. Please.
A citizens’ assembly will be convened to study, deliberate, prioritize and make recommendations regarding all facets of amalgamation, from council size to municipal services to emergency preparedness and tackling climate change at a local level.
They will listen to concerns, carefully regard the values and needs of their fellow citizens whom they represent, and ultimately select solutions that are practical and thoughtful.
A citizens’ assembly is a truly democratic process. And in a world where democracy is crumbling everywhere around us, where trust in government is at an all-time low, where ideology divides us more than ever, where more people question the value of even living in a democracy, it’s processes like these that truly strengthen our democratic society and lead to equitable outcomes.
Plus, whatever comes of the citizens’ assembly will wind up before all voters in a referendum. Let’s not pre-judge that outcome. Trust the process. Trust citizens.
Richard Johnson
Victoria West
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